Kerans, who is state representative from Danvers, recently kicked off her campaign against the male hegemony that conspires to keep females down with legislation to create a government commission on the status of girls.
Girls, according to Kerans "receive significantly less attention from classroom teachers," they are "less likely ... to pursue the study of math and science," they face an "increase in the number of sexual harassment incidents by boys," and they suffer "a documented loss of self-esteem ... that is twice that of boys."
The most dramatic fact is that girls have twice the suicide and school dropout rates as boys.Most of us will be properly alarmed by these fantastic figures, but not misogynist Jeff Jacoby, who, like a true patriarchist, dismisses them out of hand:
Start with dropout rates. It is boys, not girls, who drop out more frequently. Between 1988 and 1990, according to the government's annual compilation of education statistics, 7.2 percent of boys - but just 6.5 percent of girls - dropped out of school before reaching 10th grade.Adding insult to injury, Jacoby calls the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women's report that girls get less attention from their teachers a fraud, pointing out that the original report said "boys, particularly low-achieving boys, receive eight to 10 times as many reprimands as do their female classmates. ... When both girls and boys are misbehaving equally, boys still receive more frequent discipline."Not only are girls more likely to graduate, they tend to start school earlier and to fall behind less often. (In 1992, 14 percent of male students had been held back one or more grades. Females: 9 percent.) Girls are far less likely to be in special education or to need remedial math when they get to college. And they do get to college - not only in greater numbers than boys (55 percent of college students are female, and most academic degrees go to women), but more quickly (64 percent of girls matriculate right after high school vs. 59 percent of boys).
Increasing sexual harassment, decreasing self-esteem, dogs and cats sleeping together, why can't Jacoby see what should be so plain: that girls are under a patriarchal assault and need our help?
"Not one of Kerans' 'facts' stands up to scrutiny." As if that is relevant.
More boys dropping out, more boys flunking, more boys in special ed, more boys needing remedial math, more boys not entering college, more boys facing discipline, more boys dying. A legislator concerned more with children than with feminist ax-grinding would be investigating the question of why boys are in such trouble. Sally Kerans - career rating from the National Organization for Women: 100 percent - is not such a legislator.Well, in response to this flagrant dismissal of feminist facts, all we can say is, thank you Mr. Jacoby! It's about time the Boston Globe told the truth.
It should come as no surprise that she has been criticized for this, but it might come as a surprise that among her most serious detractors have been pro-family conservative elements who are concerned about her apparent advocacy of big government as a replacement for parents. Clinton was not so sure:
I do think government has a role, but I don't think by any means it has the primary role in strengthening families. The government is a last-resort safety net for the vulnerable among us -- particularly poor children. It does help supplement some of the services families need, through programs like school lunches or Head Start. But it's all aimed, if it's done right, at helping parents, not at taking away the parental responsibility.Good words, but the jury's still out. Let's see her act on those words.
On the evening of January 3, 1993, according to two female visitors who had left the apartment before the murder, McDow was violent and attacked her husband. Despite this, he kept his cool and tried to comfort her and calm her down. Later, she stabbed him to death.
Despite that McDow claimed she was an abused woman acting in self-defense, the court stuck her with a stiff two-year sentence, which has now been extended to a horrendous and unjust five years. Fortunately, McDow could be paroled again within two months.
Canadian feminists are obviously not happy about this, concerned that the "decision may make women less likely to use the battered-woman defence."
This is indefensible. Next thing you know, we'll see women being sentenced to an unthinkable 45 days in therapy for castrating their sleeping husbands while men receive token sentences for rape. Will the horrific atrocities our society is committing against women never end?
Prosecutors requested ten-year sentences for the three young African-American representatives of white patriarchal power, yet they received terms ranging from a mere 6.5 to seven years. This is yet another appalling example of how lightly men take the rape and oppression of women. All men should bow their heads in shame and raise their voices in protest to demand that these criminals receive time appropriate to their crime.
While we side with Dennis Miller's view that a "sense of humor is just that...a sense of what we find funny," and that it's not up to us to judge what makes others laugh, this crosses the line. How can anyone in this enlightened era make up a slogan as loathsome as that?
As long as we're on the subject of T-shirts, the enlightened ladies at Seattle NOW Feminist Products have a delightful slogan that can be had on either a T-shirt or a button: "Stop Sucking and Start Biting."
For more information on how you can obtain your very own copy and start promoting sexual violence against men in retaliation for all those thousands of years men today have oppressed women, contact Seattle NOW Feminist products at: Seattle NOW, 4075A Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105, or call (206) 632-8547.
Make a powerful statement against the evil nastiness of men, and order your Seattle NOW Feminist slogan-bearing buttons and T-shirts today. Tell them The Backlash sent you. :-)
Because exploitation of women and animals derives from the same patriarchal mentality, FAR attempts to expose the connections between sexism and speciesism whenever and wherever we can. We feel that the common denominator in the lives of women and animals is violence - either real or threatened - and we work in nonviolent ways to change that.Thanks to the folks at FAR, Marty Stouffer will be able to sleep better at night when the animals he films realize they don't have to kill one another for food anymore. Yes, once imbued with FARout enlightenment, the lion and the lamb will be able to cast aside their speciesism and graze side by side, providing a powerful example to the sexist sex of the human species (men, for those of you who have not yet been blessed by the goddess to know these things) of how the "natural order" is nothing more than a patriarchal plot: "We view patriarchy as a system of hierarchical domination, a system which works for the powerful and willing against the powerless and unwilling."
That should be enough to persuade you the folks at FAR flakes, but do they represent mainstream feminism?
FAR is dedicated to the promotion of vegetarianism because we believe the feminist precept that the personal is political.Feminists in the mainstream (as opposed to mainstream feminists) will tell you this political precept applies as much to men as to women. Mainstream feminists, on the other hand, are consistent in not applying this precept to men. The personal is political, unless you're a man, in which case your personal is your problem, so handle it.
In patriarchal society women and animals are... beaten, raped, hated, enslaved as pets, exploited as wives, sold for money, used for entertainment, cheap labor, sex, experiments...This reminds me of a woman I knew several years ago. A popular young woman yearned after by many "nice guys," she was also the bed partner of many not-so- nice guys...and at least one dog. (I have some advice for all you "nice guys" out there -- if you're interested in an American or Canadian woman who is popular and socially active, you need to keep one thing very clearly in mind -- all of your worst fears about her sex life are probably true. But that's just my opinion, and I'm not even Dennis Miller.) A friend reminded me of that the other day while relating the recent experience of a divorced coworker who found out his wife's (female) next door neighbor was having sex with their dog.
Oh, but we were on the subject of how men rape women and animals.
In patriarchal society women and animals are considered... inferior, "cute," childish, uncontrollable, emotional, impulsive, instinctive, irrational, evil, property, objects...Perhaps they would prefer to be considered losers, visually irrelevant, brutish, violent, unfeeling, disposable, walking wallets, rapists, oppressors...
"That's a serious mistake." according to the editors at The Sacramento Bee:
AB 999 is sponsored by COPS, the Coalition for Parental Support, a men's rights group that also sponsored AB 180, a bill by Assemblyman Bill Morrow that sought to change California's child support formula. That bill, which fortunately failed in the Assembly recently, would have cut support from noncustodial parents (usually fathers) by 20% if one child is involved and by 25% if there are two or more.Their position is that "the Senate should kill it."
Satirist and equal rights advocate Lenny Schafer, points out that,
Never forget that.
The clear-cut campaign to sissify men while butching up the female image is hard to miss. The idea is to encourage men to weep, do dishes and change diapers while women talk filthy, sleep around and wear combat boots.(Typically, feminist-apologists respond to this with the assertion that men used to "talk filthy, sleep around and wear combat boots," and now it’s women’s turn. Only problem is, at least in our society most men have not fit this stereotype.)
Also hard to miss is the strong element of mean-spirited vindictiveness in the radical women's movement -- to the extent that healthy and wholesome relationships between men and women have been seriously damaged.To counter the confusion promulgated by all this, she offers some advice to young women, including the following, to which I would add some comments of my own:
Don't put on a micro-mini skirt, waltz into a sailors' bar and expect to be treated like the Queen of England.Time was, that was taken as common sense. These days, what with the biddies at NOW complaining that a woman should be able to walk down a dark street stark naked without fear of being noticed or...approached...what should be obvious sometimes needs to be said.
Be careful. The expansion of the meaning of "sexual harassment" to include what have historically been rather normal interactions between males and females is likely to have the effect of driving men into each others arms.To this I would add that, by strict definition, the vast majority of workplace sexual harassers are women. It took decades for women in general to pick up on and act on the feminist perspective on this; men may be less inclined to embrace victim status, but once the precedent has been established (and it has) it won't take them nearly as long. It is in women's best-interests to eschew the vague and subjective definition promoted by the victim feminists in favor of one that is clear cut, objective and universal.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, it is not the role of women to drive men crazy.Shere Hite take note.
We should not scold gentlemen for holding open doors for us. It will be our loss if chivalry dies. Let's encourage men to put us back on pedestals, where we belong.Women do not belong on pedestals anymore than men do. In nature, we do have our roles, roles that are subject to evolution as humanity continues to adapt and evolve through the adoption and evolution of new technologies. However, women and men should treat one another with respect.
Find a real man rather than a sissypants. Find a man who will make you feel good about being a normal female.The same goes for guys: find a real woman rather than a bully who excuses her belligerence in the name of liberation. Find a woman who will let you feel good about being a normal male, and don't go for one who expects you to cater to her feminist-induced delusions. In my experience, that means to pretty much forget about American girls, but I'm always ready to be proved wrong on that.Don't go for the sensitive man, who encourages you in your victimhood, reinforces you in your delusions of oppression, helps you feel proud of your flaws and joins you in hating his own sex. In other words, don't marry your problem.
Never smoke cigars, and never, ever spit.Smoking cigars and spitting is ill-mannered and vulgar, regardless of who's doing it or what sex they are.
Join the National Rifle Association. Meet some real men and learn to defend yourself at the same time. I know both thoughts may frighten you, but such fears can and should be overcome. Masculinity and weaponry are of value in a dangerous and lonely world.Don't tell that to the Feminists for Animal Rights (above). They seem to think all non-human critters never pose a threat outside the influence of patriarchy, and that civilization is something that just sort of happens (or that happens despite men with weapons).
But who am I to talk? My daddy put me through gun safety training when I was 11, I got my first gun at 14, and I don't pay them much attention for that reason. The people who seem most obsessed with guns are those who don't grow up with them, and who are either frightened into taking up arms, or who have been so thoroughly emasculated that an Uzi provides the only means of self-expression that is sure to get them noticed.
Gun ownership is not the problem many would have us believe it to be. Far more people are killed by reckless drivers (of both sexes) than gun slinging testosterone- deficient gang members, and anyone who opposes our right to bear arms but ignores this fact is less credible than Bill Clinton at an anti-adultery convocation.
Gun ownership is a right, not an answer. We have the right to bear arms because our founding fathers (and their mothers and wives) understood that an armed populace is harder to oppress by its government than a nation of bleating sheep. But owning guns does not provide the answer to all or even some of the challenges facing us today. For that, we must confront our problems with intelligence, fairness and unblinking integrity.
Watch out for a man who doesn't want to settle down and have children. It means one of three things: He is not ready to make a lasting commitment, his intention is to use you and lose you, and he was forced to play with dolls as a child.Similarly, men should watch out for women who chase after men who don't want to settle down and have children. If she's addicted to men who treat her like shit, she's never going to love for long a man who treats her with respect.
Don't teach your son that his little sister is just like a boy except for unimportant differences. Clear your mind of your prejudices and teach your son that he should be protective of his little sister and that it is manly to honor and defend the opposite sex. If you instruct him early in the right way to treat women, when he grows older, he will not depart from it.Damn straight. Similarly, teach your daughters to honor, respect and nurture the opposite sex.
Reportedly, Prince Charles choked when he heard:
Reporting that the $45.6 million figure has stunned Charles and his lawyers, (The Sun) predicted the prince will have to turn to his mother to bankroll the divorce.How many more high-profile men will have to take it in the shorts before they realize what more and more middle- and working-class men already know -- it’s time to demand equal rights and responsibilities regardless of sex in both marriage and divorce, because women have most of the rights and men, most of the responsibilities, now.
Although men walk through the pages of history leaving footprints that are prominent, muddy, bloody and bold, women have left an imprint that is no less significant for its subtlety.
When it comes to taking responsibility for the butchery, slavery, knavery, and misdeeds, however, only men are accountable. Only men are to blame.
But now, they’re beginning to change their tune, and it’s about time. According to University of Washington historian Suzanne Lebsock, it all counts:
"Is child rearing more important than dropping the bomb?" she asks rhetorically. "We need a broad enough history to encompass it all." The traditional politics, she says, and the personal politics of who feeds the cat.Feminists will agree that historians have ignored women for too long. Now is the time to acknowledge the equal role women have played in the formation of our social institutions, policies, politics, laws, and feeding the cat.
By the same token, feminists need to acknowledge their own skewed view of history. For example, Lebsock's perspective on work and parental love:
"Instead of being responsible for character building and making sure a child can make its way in the word as an independent adult...there was tremendous emphasis on love, nurturing, emotional development, intense scrutiny of the child, intense loving relationship with the child, that’s not natural -- it was invented in the 19th century as an ethic for parents...(that lets) men off the hook in terms of their responsibility for contact with their children and character building," especially interesting in that formerly character building was primarily considered the father’s duty. "It was an advantage to men, freeing them for the labor market, but also had potential to create distance between men and their children."Uh-huh. Like women freed men to die in war. And how is an intense loving relationship with your children not natural?
Another thing feminists need to acknowledge is how scurrilous their attack on western men in general, and American men in particular, has been. Admits Deborah Felder, author of The 100 Most Influential Women of All Time, "The reality is women in Western cultures have more chance to be influential."
There’s a reason for that, and Western men have as much to do with it as Western women.